The Dinosaurs of ‘Jurassic World Evolution’: Part Two

Even if you’re into the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World series for the action, it would be hard to deny that there’s some part of you that loves learning about monstrous reptiles of yore.

A few days ago we took a look at about half the dinosaurs gracing television screens in Jurassic World Evolution, and this week we’re going to take a look at the remainders. Wondering where the T Rexes and Triceratops are? Be sure to check out our dino guide for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, too!

Pachycephalosaurus

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These dinosaurs appeared in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as well as Crichton’s actual book The Lost World. They’ve been pretty much portrayed the same way as Stygimoloch is in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: they’re really into hitting things with their heads. Speaking of Stygimoloch, there’s a theory that Stygi (Stiggy?) may just be a juvenile form of Pachycephalosaur, not a cousin.

Pentaceratops

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This member of the ceratopsid family has a longer frill than the most famous family member, Triceratops. Its face-horns match its cousin, but the frill dips into a “U” shape in the center which has two smaller horns, hence the name “five-horned face.” The bumps and spikes on the outer ridge of the frill are technically hornlets, a cute, scientific way of saying small horns. Apparently, those don’t count towards a name.

Polacanthus

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This Ankylosaur-type dinosaur was covered in spikes, although it appears that its lower back had a patch of simple bumps and nodes. However, there are very few specimens available of this dinosaur, so it’s possible this bare patch shows a lack of complete fossil data more than anything else.

Sauropelta

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Although Sauropelta resembles an Ankylosaur, it is actually considered a nodosaurid–basically, it’s a “once-removed” member of the family. Sauropelta is an early nodosaurid, even though it was hanging around during the early Cretacious, which is basically the last era out of three that dinosaurs were ruling the earth. Fossil evidence points to Deinonychus as being the main antagonists of these defensive dinos.

Spinosaurus

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For many years, very little was known about this dinosaur. The best specimen was destroyed during the London Blitz, and there weren’t really any truly identifiable pieces found until the late eighties. Nonetheless, Spinosaur was chosen to be the new, updated antagonist of Jurassic Park 3, taking inspiration from its body structure to create an amphibious foe just as dangerous in the water as on land.

The sail could have been useful for managing body temperature, attracting mates, or even in a role similar to a dorsal fin on a dolphin or shark, but the truth is nobody really knows what it was used for, and it may remain a mystery forever. Some scientists even believe the bony structure that appears to be a sail just gave support to a fleshy hump in real life.

Struthiomimus

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Struthiomimus looks pretty similar to its cousin Gallimimus, though its name means “ostrich mimic.” They also have toothless beaks, and the fossil evidence suggests they were herbivores, or at the very least omnivores. These dinosaurs were thought to be able to run at a max speed of 50 miles per hour to escape bigger predators.

Styracosaurus

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This cousin to Triceratops has many similar markers, though they don’t have the same horns over their eyes. The horns coming off their frills more than make up for that! It’s thought that Styracosaur frills served more to interest potential mates as a combat device, though we imagine that it didn’t hurt to have when push came to shove.

Suchomimus

This huge dinosaur features a tapered skull with teeth that point backward slightly, meaning that when it bit, the bitee was pretty much stuck. Like Spinosaur, there are unusual ridges on the vertebrae, but they aren’t nearly as tall as the Spinosaurs’s frill appears to be. The vertebrae more proportional on Suchomimus’s body.

Torosaurus

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Torosaurus has two big claims to fame. First of all, there was a moment in the early 2010s where it was thought that there was no Triceratops species–Triceratops were just juvenile Torosaurs! A meticulous study of specimens disproved this, however.

Its second claim to fame? Dilophosaur may be the Connecticut state dinosaur, but Torosaurus is the one with the statue on the grounds of Yale University. For a while, you could buy Yale ephemera with a Torosaur on it in place of the bulldog on their sports logo.

Tsintaosaurus

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Unlike most all other dinosaurs, duck-bills have some very tiny details in common with humans: bones in the inner ear. This meant that their sense of hearing was more developed, which seems to support the idea that these, like most other duck-billed dinosaurs, relied on verbalization for a majority of communication.

And there you have it: some fast facts about the dinosaur roster of Jurassic World Evolution. Did your favorites make the cut? If you could add some different dinosaurs to the game, who would you add? Let us know in the comments below!